Learning To Live
by o0Black-Sand0o
Summary: Charlie thought he knew what living was. It was risking your neck and cheating death, his healer called it stupitity, but after he is badly injured and has to be healed, he finds out what living truly means. One Swear word!


To say Charlie Weasley had been daring since his friend's accident was an understatement. He had seen his friend fight for his life for months in a coma after his close call with a deadly dragon, only to lose. Yes, Charlie had been daring; almost foolishly so. After a decent time spent grieving, Charlie started to miss working with dragons and went back to work. He had been working as a Tamer for only two years and already he had seen someone die.

It had not been long after the loss of his friend that Charlie realized all those people who said, "Life is too short," were right. Before, whenever someone said that, he would scoff, and reply, "Short? How can life be too short? It's the longest damn thing anyone can do!" But his friend's life i_had/i_ been short; he hadn't started living till he met the woman he wanted to marry, which was the year previous.

Then Charlie decided to start taking risks; living a little. It started off with him just doing small things, things he hadn't been brave enough to do out of fear for the consequences, like telling a fellow Tamer what he truly thought of him. It turned out the Tamer appreciated his view and had started to change. Then he dared to hit on his boss' daughter; that had ended with a threat that he would be fired. Now it had escalated to him flying dangerously close to dragons, which had landed him in his current predicament.

At this very moment, he was walking to the infirmary for those that worked with the dragons, his hands and arms suffering from severe burns. This was not the first time that week he had to go see his Healer. Each Healer had a list of people that they looked after and his Healer was cursing the day she got her list, saying Charlie Weasley was her patient. The red-head sighed, knowing his Healer would not be happy to see him back so soon. He vaguely wondered if she would even treat him after his 'stupidity' as she called it.

The moment the greying Romanian woman at the enquiry desk saw Charlie back so soon, she shook her head and fought back the smile that wanted to appear on her aging face. The woman was slightly eccentric at times but was a hopeless romantic, and had been for the whole of her fifty years, so she loved Charlie's boyish charm. Although she was married, she encouraged him to flirt, just with someone else. Her job was to sign the patient in and then tell them where to find their Healer.

"Hello, Charlie, back again?" she asked with a smile.

"Hello, Lilith," Charlie replied with a charming smile, leaning his thankfully unharmed elbows on her desk. "Yes, I am. I couldn't bare the thought of being away from you for more then a few days."

The older woman just chuckled at his fake advances. "Dragon burns, up to the forearms," she noted in his file, speaking almost fluent English. "Do I need to note vat kind?"

"I'd rather you didn't!" Charlie admitted.

"Let me guess: the dragon that caused your injuries did not have strong fire breathing abilities?" Lilith smirked knowingly. Charlie just smiled guiltily. "Healer Stellesta is in room forty-three; I bet she will be pleased to see you."

Charlie gave the kind woman a weak smile, knowing it wasn't true. He took his file carefully, as to not hurt his hand, so he could give to his Healer. He walked down a grey corridor that was off from the entrance and followed it. Each day the Healers were in different rooms so he didn't know off-by-heart where she was. He watched the brass numbers on the rooms increase as he walked. Healers and newly healed patients alike walked out of rooms around him, creating a draft in their wake. The draft had a bitter chill to it, and caused Charlie's tender arms to ache.

Finally, he found the door with the number forty-three curved into the brass plaque. The door was closed and only when he reached for the door handle did he realize his predicament. He couldn't open the door, or even knock because his hands were sore and blistered. Thankfully, a Healer was passing at that time wearing the standard lime green robes and he graciously opened the door for Charlie. Charlie was also informed that his Healer was busy with another patient and he'd have to wait.

When he entered the room, he released the file from his light grasp onto the counter littered with beakers and test-tubes. The more commonly used potions were stored in a glass cabinet. Sighing, the injured man sat down on a stool and waited for his grouchy Healer in the cement grey coloured room.

She was actually a pleasant woman. She always had a kind smile and word for everyone, but that was before Charlie had gotten on her nerves and ever since, her smile would slip at the sight of him. That was exactly what had happened when she walked into the room and saw Charlie. She had walked in with a kind and apologetic smile that quickly faded into a grimace. "Hello, sorry to keep you waiti... Oh no, Mr. Weasley!"

"Happy to see me?" Charlie smiled, getting up when the woman looked at him. His Healer just rolled her eyes and breezed passed him, going to his file. "Come on, Prudence. Call me Charlie!"

Prudence Stellesta was a rather plain looking British girl; she had foreign ancestors, but from what country she didn't know. She had wavy brown hair that was put up with a clip and dark brown eyes. She didn't have any outstanding features, but she had brains. Although she was British, she had never attended Hogwarts; Prudence travelled with her parents all over the world, learning some of the oldest magic and some of the most advance, yet almost lost, ways of healing.

"i_Mr. Weasley_,/i I see you got too close to a dragon... again!" Prudence said in a distained voice, emphasising his titled name.

"Ah, yeah, I did. Your green robes look extra nice today, I might add," Charlie complemented with a heart melting smile. Charlie saw Prudence roll her eyes again, a habit she had obtained from spending too much time with him

"Mr. Weasley, do you enjoy risking your life?"

"No, I was just doing my job!" Charlie defended himself. His Healer glared at him and pointed to the stool he had earlier vacated. He obliged her silent command and sat back down.

"Why do you do this?" She sighed in exasperation.

Charlie just shrugged, which did not improve the Healer's mood.

Prudence sat on her stool, which had wheels, and rolled over to him to inspect his injures. He held out his arms and thought she would seek her revenge by grabbing his arm by 'accident', but she was surprisingly gentle. She skimmed her fingers so lightly over Charlie's wound that he didn't even flinch. After a moment where Prudence looked at the man's arms and the man looked at her, she pushed back her chair and went over to one of the glass cabinets holding potions and pulled out a particular one that was acid green. She went back over to Charlie and carefully applied the burn ointment.

"Your gloves complement your robes," Charlie informed the disgruntled Healer, referring to the lime green rubber gloved the girl wore.

"You said that last time you were here," Prudence replied in a biting voice.

"Well, I could tell you that you are looking absolutely sexy in that colour and I'm having naughty ideas but I'm afraid you might stop putting the potion on, which isn't really helping," Charlie noted as she slid her hands up his arms softly.

"I will act professional even when faced with insufferable patients, and isn't the ointment helping?" Prudence, ever the Healer, ignored the first part of his statement.

"Not my ideas, no, it's making them worse, but it is helping my arms," Charlie assured her.

Prudence sighed, finally having enough with him. "Done, wash it off in three hours, now leave!"

"Very well, Prue. But can I have a kiss, it will help me heal?" Charlie coerced, getting up as the girl did.

Prudence tugged at her glove, making it come off her hand with a sickly snap. "Out!" was her only word to Charlie.

Realizing that Prudence was not going to put up with his antics for much longer, the Dragon Tamer left the room and headed back down the grey corridors to the entrance, his arms a ugly green.

"How did you get on?" Lilith asked when he appeared in the entrance.

"She was so happy to see me that we spent most of the time snogging..." Lilith looked at him in confusion, "kissing passionately."

"Oh, you and your British words." The woman shook her head. "She was very unhappy?"

"She didn't even respond to my innuendos," Charlie exclaimed in astonishment.

Lilith just chuckled at him and his behaviour before bidding him farewell.

"Goodbye, Lilith. At least I was not turned down by two lovely ladies; you make me still have confidence in my charm," the man told her before leaving to go home and rest.

Charlie decided to give Prudence a break for a while. He was more careful at work as to not end up back in the infirmary, needing healing from a woman that had clearly had enough of him. It was working perfectly fine. He had not been to the infirmary for one whole week, but that was where his luck ended.

Charlie's superior had come up to him and informed him of a dragon that was getting dangerously close to a Muggle town. It was not one that had been in the habitat but one that used to live in mountains not too far north and had come down in search of something. Charlie had no idea what type of dragon he was flying off to face but when he got to his destination, he discovered it was a rare breed, one that was believed to have died out hundreds of years before; its last sighting was in a remote part of Africa with hardly any access to communication. It was out of the mountain because it could only live a few years without sustenance, and since no mountain climber had been up in those mountains for years, it had been growing thirsty for blood, its only food source.

He had been able to overpower the dragon, but only after back up had arrived and he had been severely injured. His arms, legs and torso were covered in deep gashes and he was bleeding profusely. All Tamers knew the legend of the Serpent-Dragon. To heal the injuries made by the talons, or the teeth (not many could remember which one had the poison) from a Serpent-Dragon using magic was to inflict more pain on the injured person than the injuries themselves.

Instead of healing the wounds, they conjured a stretcher and levitated Charlie to the infirmary as fast as they could.

He was placed in a closed ward and was left to wait with his partner for the Healer to arrive.

"Bet Prue won't be happy to see me back," Charlie tried to joke with Abram.

Abram just kept looking grim, with a dark shadow over his face as he looked at Charlie's still bleeding wounds.

Charlie was right. Healer Prudence walked in with a scowl on her face and his open file in her hands. The injured man vaguely noted that the Healer looked cute with her wavy hair in loose, plaited pigtails. "Back again, Mr. Weasley, what is it this ti..." She stopped speaking when her eyes landed on the bleeding form on the white bed. "What happened?"

"We were sent to face a Serpent-Dragon and it scratched him while he was creating a diversion for another Tamer to escape," Abram explained in Romanian, which thankfully the two people knew.

The girl paled visibly. "I knew you would get severely hurt sooner or later, but why that dragon?" she pleaded to know.

"You can heal me, so it doesn't matter," Charlie choked out between winces of pain.

"You don't get it!" Prudence stated desperately. "There is only one method to clean the cuts and remove the poison from the dragon's talons. The method is extraordinarily crude and believed to be medieval but it is our only option."

"What do you have to do?" Charlie asked, knowing he would regret hearing the answer.

"To heal you, I will have to pour the only potion, not to mention only form of magic, known in the world that will not enact the fail-safe, into the cuts and then put a cloth into the open wound. The potion draws out the poison and the cloth is to soak up the poison. The fail-safe is something in the poison that activates whenever magic is used on the victim; it boils their blood till only dust is left. The treatment has to me administered every hour on the hour for twenty-four hours and each time you will loss blood. That is why I am going to put a needle in your arm later on in the treatment; the needle will be connected to a bag of blood. It's a Muggle method, since we can't use a Blood Replenishing Potion whilst the poison is in you. It's going to be painful."

Charlie only had to take one look at Prudence's serious and sympathetic face to know it was true. She had not used her kind voice on him since he had started behaving recklessly but she was now. He had heard stories about Serpent-Dragons and that either their bite or their scratch was lethal but not many knew which. It was also told that there was a remote place in Africa that was plagued with these dragons and the Witch Doctors had made a rather unorthodox method of healing the wounds. It was the only place that knew of this treatment and thankfully, it was one of the many places Prudence had been.

Abram left on the Healer's command. Prudence asked one of the attendants to fetch the things needed to brew the potion before she wrote down instructions to give to the Potions Master. The potion didn't take long to brew, but there was a large quantity needed for the treatment, especially concerning the number of injures Charlie had.

When everything was ready, Prudence removed the bandages that she had wrapped around the wounds to stem the bleeding. Charlie winced as he was forced to move and tried to ignore the small amount of pain, knowing that the pain coming next was going to be ten times worse.

Prudence dampened the first lot of cloths with water so it wouldn't hurt as much when she introduced it to the open flesh. She took the beaker of potion for his first treatment and the cloths over to Charlie. She sat them on the small table next to her knee before sitting on the edge of the bed and drawing Charlie's arm across her lap. She placed his hand in hers gently before reaching over for the potion. She handed Charlie a piece of wood around five centimetres long and about two centimetres wide, that was soft enough for him to bite, but did not splinter. She put it in his mouth, so he had something to bite down on.

"Ready?" she asked.

"No," Charlie groaned truthfully. Prudence just smiled sadly at him and gave his hand a light squeeze. The man vaguely wondered why she had put his hand in hers but quickly banished the thought from his mind as the hot liquid seeped into his cuts. The moment the stinging pain started, Charlie clenched his hand, almost crushing the Healer's fingers. That's why she had done it; so he could hold onto something. He bit down on the piece of wood in his mouth, letting it muffle his screams of pain. With each wound she healed, she quickly put the cloth in to soak up the poison before it had a chance to sink back into the skin. After finishing a body part, she would bandage it up so that Charlie could move in the hour he had to wait between treatments without worrying about knocking the cloth out.

She did this to each wound with agonizing slowness, which was unfortunately necessary. At the end of the first treatment, she took the piece of wood out of Charlie's mouth; the wood having noticeable indentations in it where Charlie had bitten down. Prudence put the leftover materials on the bench off where the next lot of materials were. After setting them down, Prudence moved back to Charlie's bed and conjured an armchair next to it.

"You're going to sit with me?" Charlie asked, trying to sound sarcastic but instead sounding weak.

Prudence smiled sympathetically and tapped the clock on the bedside table. "The clock will tell me when an hour has passed between each treatment. You won't hear it though. From past experiences, I know the patient tends to get tired after a while and likes to sleep between the treatments."

"If I fall asleep, promise to wake me before you start up again," Charlie said, feeling the fatigue. Prudence nodded her agreement. "Did you mean that you have done this before?"

"Yes," Prudence confessed. "When living in Africa I oversaw three of these treatments and performed two. I know it doesn't seem like many but the treatment is simple enough to perform, it's just time consuming and painful for the patient."

"I kind of figured that one out!" Charlie retorted with a dry chuckle.

Prudence forced another tight smile. The hour seemed to pass in sluggish silence. Neither of them could think of anything to say. When the hour was up, the Healer removed the first bandage and took out the first cloth she had put in. As she did, Charlie could feel the deeper part of the skin sealing together. He was slowly healing.

"The cloths have to get smaller for each treatment," Charlie warned in a strain. "I can feel them closing a little."

"I know," Prudence replied, filling the cuts on his arm with the potion and different cloths to last time and putting a new bandage on it. She put the old materials in a bin and when she was finished administering the second of twenty-four painful treatments, she Vanished it.

"I thought you couldn't do magic on anything with the poison in it," Charlie groaned, wishing for conversation.

"On patients it's deadly, but on inanimate objects it doesn't matter," Prudence informed him, sitting back down. "Tell me about your family; it will help take your mind off the pain."

"Okay, I'm the second eldest out of six boys and one girl. Ginny's the youngest," Charlie told her, looking up at the grey ceiling above him.

"How old is she?"

"Eleven, she just started Hogwarts this year. What about you? Any siblings?" Charlie asked.

"No,' Prudence replied kindly. "My parents liked travelling more than having a family. How long have you worked here?"

"Two years," Charlie answered, grateful that she was keeping the small talk going. "You?"

"Same. I moved here from Egypt. I was studying their old methods of healing... they weren't great."

"Oh, yeah, my older brother, Bill, works in Egypt. He's a Curse-Breaker. They may have keeled over easily, but at least they were well protected after death."

Prudence chuckled at his joke. "William Weasley is your brother?"

"Yeah, you know him?"

"Yes, I met him whilst looking at the ruins. Nice person."

"I bet he i_loved/i_ you calling him William!" Charlie said with as much sarcasm he could muster.

"No, he didn't, but I kindly explained to him that I hated the name Bill; it makes me think I'm being taxed for talking to them. I told him if he wouldn't accept William, I'd call him Tax! He didn't like that either!"

Charlie laughed but it hurt his stomach too much to use those muscles. "Don't make me laugh," Charlie demanded with humour in his voice.

"I'll try my best to be boring then. Tell me about your other siblings." Prudence smiled at him.

"Now, Percy could teach you how to be boring. He's three years younger than me and he made Prefect last year... well, so did Bill and I but he's different. He can't take a joke at all. That's why he's always a target for Fred and George. They're twins and they love to prank. They're quite good at it actually, they only get on everyone's nerves sometimes; generally it's just mum and Percy they annoy. Ron's the youngest boy and he seems to think he has to prove himself or something. Well, I guess living in the shadow of five older brothers does that, but he can kick anyone's butt in chess. And then there's Ginny. Not too sure what she's into. She's the girl, and the youngest. Bill and I tended to stick together, then Fred and George, Percy and his book and Ron and Ginny, so all I know is she's my little sister and I'd do anything for her."

"Protective older brother?" Prudence chuckled at his clip-notes about his family.

"Just a bit." Charlie smiled. "So why did you become a Healer?"

"Because when travelling I got to learn some of the oldest forms of magic, a lot of which has died out of today's society and I got to help a lot of people with what I learnt. Actually, this was exactly that got me into it," Prudence admitted, nodding to Charlie's sores.

"This?"

"This!" Prudence nodded her head with a small smile on her face. "A while ago, I stayed in a little village with some tribal folk. This little boy, a child of Humanitarians like my parents, went for a walk. When he didn't come back, we went out looking for him. One of the Elders found him and brought him back to our camp. He was white as a sheet and losing blood quickly. The Elder asked for my help, someone to sooth the child because no mother should have to see their child go through the detox. It gets worse further in. Anyway, the boy was attacked by the same species of dragon as you. The whole time I was helping this boy, the Elder was telling me how they have most of the dragons there but not all. All I could think was: 'Not many people know this treatment, but I do. I know many healing methods others don't.' And that's when I decided to become a Healer."

"Wow!" Charlie exclaimed, thinking about the little boy. "How old was he?"

"Seven."

"Di - Did he live?"

"Thankfully, yes, but he was weak for a few weeks," Prudence admitted. "Okay, hour's up!"

She wasn't kidding about the pain increasing as the hours passed. When they were twelve hours into the treatment, the poison seemed to start fighting the potion's ability to force it out of the skin. Prudence had to put the potion over a fire for a while before pouring it into the cuts. It felt like lava to Charlie. Each time the skin went to heal itself a little so the poison couldn't return to the depths of his skin, it felt as though the poison was trying to pry the tender skin apart so the two sides couldn't join.

Charlie found that he spat out the piece of wood in his mouth because he couldn't bite down any more; he needed to scream in agony. The brunette seemed to have expected that, for she quickly casted a silencing spell on the door before he started.

"_Fuck!_" Charlie yelled at the top of his voice as the Healer finished. To her credit, she didn't wince. As Prudence sat down again, Charlie felt his energy leave him. He had long ago been hooked up to a bag of blood but he still felt weak from the loss of blood and the pain.

"Sleep, I'll wake you before I start again," Prudence promised.

Charlie looked over at the woman and saw the blood that stained her robes, his blood; the blood that had poured from his wounds as she put the potion in. It was all over her and Charlie's last though was: i_how could she stand doing this for a seven-year-old without going insane?/i_ Then he went to sleep.

He had a confusing dream about Prudence. She was the one hurt and he didn't know what to do. He just sat and watched as she screamed herself to death in his arms, but then she started saying something in a soft voice.

"Charlie. Charlie, wake up or I will be forced to start the procedure whilst you sleep and I assure you that will be a crude awakening."

Charlie started to stir as the vision of his Healer dying vanished. He opened his blue eyes to look into her dark brown ones. "Prue... I mean Healer Stellesta."

"You can call me Prue, my parents used to," she told him with a smile.

"You and your parents don't have a family relationship, do you, Prue?" Charlie asked, watching her put the necessary things on the small table. He liked using her nickname; it sounded right.

"No, they see me as more of a co-worker," Prudence admitted, moving to sit on the edge of the bed. She drew his arm onto her lap for the twentieth time and undid his bandage his arm. She didn't hold his hand anymore, seeing as she needed one to pour the potion and put the cloth in and the other to hold his arm still. Charlie had started to thrash around in pain and lift his middle half up off the bed.

This time when she preformed the routine, he held tight onto her blood soaked robes, feeling the blood drip from his wounds at a rapid pace. He almost felt himself fall into unconsciousness, but he was able to hold on. It took him a little longer to calm down than before so Prudence sat at the head of his bed and ran her fingers through his hair.

"That's actually helping," Charlie whispered tiredly.

"Yeah, it tends to help. I don't know why, seeing as I'm technically patting you like a dog."

Charlie just chuckled softly before silence fell over them. "This must have been how Elias felt," Charlie groaned to himself.

"You knew him?" Prudence asked, hearing what he said.

"Yes, he was my friend, one of the first people to befriend me when I moved here," Charlie told her.

Prudence nodded. She seemed to be mulling over something. "Is that why you keep taking risks? Your superior told me I wouldn't have to worry about you too much because you were really safe when working and now I see you all the time."

"I guess," Charlie admitted. "My friend had just started living when he died. I didn't want to feel like I wasted my life when I was on my death bed."

"And you think that risking your neck means you have lived?" Prudence asked in disbelief. Charlie tried to shrug but it turned into a grimace of pain. Prudence shook her head. "I can't believe you! I've lived. Living is not how many times you can cheat death; it's how much you don't regret when you die. Can you honestly say that you won't regret your stupidity at work?"

Charlie thought about it for some time before dropping his eyes. "You're right; there is nothing in my life I can say I don't regret."

"Oh?" Prudence said sceptically. "What about facing the Serpent-Dragon? You saved a whole town of Muggles. What about all the time you spent with your family? Do you regret taking this job?"

"No," Charlie admitted. "I don't regret any of that. I guess you're right." Just then, Charlie's empty stomach gave a large grumble. "Can I have something to eat?"

"Unfortunately, no." Prudence smiled apologetically. "See, the food is made using magic so it's dangerous for you to have. But I promise, once this is over, you won't have to eat whatever's on the menu. I'll ask the House-Elves to make you something special. I would have something cooked the Muggle way but the House-Elves don't know how to cook that way and everyone else is too busy."

"Pumpkin and corn soup," Charlie said automatically, making Prudence laugh. "What? My mum used to make it whenever one of use was sick. Fred and George used to pretend to be sick to have it until they got bored with always being stuck in bed so they created these lollies that made people sick. They used to feed them to Percy... and Ron, depending on who was annoying them when they wanted the soup. When one of us was sick, we would all have soup."

Prudence laughed at his siblings antics. "Well, unfortunately, your brothers and sister can't eat some with you."

"Well I guess you'll just have to," Charlie told her.

"Fine," Prudence agreed, as though she was reluctant.

"Okay, last time I'll be taking these cloths out. It will hurt a lot," Prudence warned, sitting down on the edge of the bed for the last time.

"Wait!" Charlie said, halting Prudence who was about to take the bandages off of Charlie's arm. "All my stupid antics when you were healing me; they were my lame attempts to flirt," Charlie admitted shyly. "Never been too good with girls."

Prudence smiled softly and unwrapped his arm. She took the cloths out of his arm and it felt as though steel teeth were on either side of his cut, prising it apart even as it moved to close up. Not wanting to scream, Charlie bit down on his lip until it drew blood but as Prudence finished his arms and moved onto his legs, he couldn't stop himself.

"Finished," Prudence whispered to him. "The soup should be here in a few minutes. I told the house-elf when to send it up." She left to quickly change out of her bloody robes and put the extra supplies away and when she came back, the soup had arrived. "Can you sit up?"

"Only if you help," Charlie replied, raising himself up as much as he could. With Prudence's help he was propped up against the headboard with the bowl in his hands. He looked over at the Healer who was lounging sideways in the armchair and eating soup. For the first time since Charlie had started annoying her, she looked her age. She normally looked professional but now that she had changed out of her robes and was in casual clothing, not to mention sitting improper in a chair, she looked like the nineteen year old she was. "So, does this count as a date?"

Prudence seemed to think about it as she swung her legs. "Nope!" Charlie lowered his head in rejection before the brunette spoke again. "I guess you'll just have to ask me to dinner then."

Charlie's head snapped up and he smiled at the girl. "Definitely, once I'm out of here and in proper clothing," he replied, having just realised that he was wearing only boxers for coverage.

Prudence just laughed at Charlie's embarrassed blush and went back to eating.

_Charlie believed he knew what living was. It was risking your neck and seeing how many times you could cheat death. His Healer calls it stupidity. When Charlie gets badly injured by a rare Dragon, he had to spend twenty-four agonizing hours being treated for his injures and during that time, he finally realizes what is the difference between living without regrets and being idiotic. _


End file.
